Sticking To Truth Sticking To Truth

League Mvp Chipper Jones Faces His Faults The Right Way

LAKE BUENA VISTA -- Chipper Jones won the National League MVP award last season on the strength of his heroics in the Atlanta Braves' pennant chase. At least that's what most voters will tell you.

Chipper will tell you that the foundation for his greatest season was forged here last spring, when he faced up to mistakes he had made in life.

An extramarital affair had unraveled his marriage and produced a son, Matthew. Jones admitted to being the father in October 1998, but it wasn't until months later that he had to deal with the media onslaught during spring training at Disney World.

It wasn't a Disney kind of story, nor one expected from baseball's boy next door. But instead of dodging questions of his infidelity, Jones dug in. He did not duck a one, calmly staring down the truth and owning up to his responsibility.

If John Rocker ever returns to the Braves or another team this season, he should handle his self-inflicted controversy the way Jones did: Head-on and humbly.

Granted, Jones' plight was more personal and contained. Rocker must cope with the unwieldy wrath of the public for who knows how long. Still, Chipper wonders what shape his life and career might be in if he had chosen a hit-and-run tactic. Today, he proudly displays a picture of himself with Matthew on his locker.

"I don't care who you are. Everybody has skeletons in their closet," Jones said after Monday's workout. "A part of me wasn't happy with the life I was living. I was pretty ashamed of it. The best thing for me was to talk about it. It helped with the healing process and became part of my rehabilitation.

"It was a big monkey on my shoulders. It was consuming me. Just facing it cleared my conscience."

In a time when some athletes lateral blame, Jones has made no excuses. He didn't look for sympathy. He doesn't want any awards pinned to his chest as a stand-up guy, because he in no way feels heroic.

"It doesn't make anything I did right," said Jones, whose divorce from Karin, his wife of eight years, was made final this winter. "All I want is to be treated like everybody else who makes a mistake."

Eventually, Jones had to get on with the business of baseball. He said facing his demons publicly allowed him to intensify his focus on the field. "I think it would have affected me differently if I had kept it in," Jones said. "I still would have felt guilt."

Chipper did feel pressure like never before after experiencing the flip side of fame. He turned in a terrific spring, erasing doubt that his personal problems were affecting his play. "What would have happened if I had stunk it up?" he said. "I'd have to answer questions if the things that had happened in the off-season were getting to me."

Jones did break out of the gate slowly, hitting just 14 homers and .277, .300 and .293 the first three months of the season. Then he became the hottest player in the NL, hitting .413 with 11 homers and 19 RBIs in July.

Over the final two months, with the Braves in a pennant drive, he clubbed 20 of his career-high 45 home runs and drove in 45 of his 110 RBIs. He batted .319 for the season and posted two two-homer games in September.

Jones, 27, made his most serious stride toward gathering momentum for a date with Cooperstown. His finishing kick was more than enough to beat Houston's Jeff Bagwell for NL MVP. "A lot of being named MVP is timing, being hot at the right time in a big pennant chase. I was having a good year, and that pushed me to the top," Chipper said. "But winning championships is my goal. If guys are just thinking individual honors, thinking MVPs or Cy Youngs, then you got a of lot of chiefs and not enough Indians on your team."

The Braves didn't have enough of either against the New York Yankees in the World Series. They were swept, unable to mount much offense against Yankees pitching. The losses of Andres Galarraga and Javy Lopez haunted the postseason. Jones hit just .231 with two RBIs in the Series.

"We just need to get healthy. We have the ability to be awfully scary. I certainly would have liked to have played the Yankees with a full deck," Jones said. "But we have no complaints, no excuses."